Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of Heat-fluid-solid Coupling of Double Flapper-nozzle Servo Valve

The double flapper-nozzle servo valve is widely used to launch and guide the equipment. Due to the large instantaneous flow rate of servo valve working under specific operating conditions, the temperature of servo valve would reach 120℃ and the valve core and valve sleeve deform in a short amount of time. So the control precision of servo valve significantly decreases and the clamping stagnation phenomenon of valve core appears. In order to solve the problem of degraded control accuracy and clamping stagnation of servo valve under large temperature difference circumstance, the numerical simulation of heat-fluid-solid coupling by using finite element method is done. The simulation result shows that zero position leakage of servo valve is basically impacted by oil temperature and change of fit clearance. The clamping stagnation is caused by warpage-deformation and fit clearance reduction of the valve core and valve sleeve. The distribution roles of the temperature and thermal-deformation of shell, valve core and valve sleeve and the pressure, velocity and temperature field of flow channel are also analyzed. Zero position leakage and electromagnet＇s current when valve core moves in full-stroke are tested using Electro-hydraulic Servo-valve Characteristic Test-bed of an aerospace sciences and technology corporation. The experimental results show that the change law of experimental current at different oil temperatures is roughly identical to simulation current. The current curve of the electromagnet is smooth when oil temperature is below 80℃, but the amplitude of current significantly increases and the hairy appears when oil temperature is above 80℃. The current becomes smooth again after the warped valve core and valve sleeve are reground. It indicates that clamping stagnation is caused by warpage-deformation and fit clearance reduction of valve core and valve sleeve. This paper simulates and tests the heat-fluid-solid coupling of double flapper-nozzle servo valve, and the obtained results provide the reference value for the design of double flapper-nozzle force feedback servo valve.

Influence of Magnetic Reluctances of Magnetic Elements on Servo Valve Torque Motors

The current research of electro-hydraulic servo valves mainly focuses on the vibration, pressure oscillating and source of noise. Unfortunately, literatures relating to the study of the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements are rarely available. This paper aims to analyze the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements on torque motor. Considering these magnetic reluctances ignored in previous literatures, a new mathematical model of servo valve torque motor is developed and proposed based on the fundamental laws of electromagnetism. By using this new mathematical model and the previous models, electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness are evaluated for a given set of torque motor parameters. A computer simulation by using AMESim software is also performed for the same set of torque motor parameters to verify the proposed model. The theoretical results of electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness evaluated by the proposed model render closer agreement with the simulation results than those evaluated by the previous models. In addition, an experimental measurement of the magnetic flux densities in the air-gaps is carried out by using SFL218 servo valve torque motor. Compared with the theoretical results of the magnetic flux densities in the air-gaps evaluated by the previous models, the theoretical results evaluated by the proposed model also show better agreement with the experimental data. The proposed model shows the influence of the magnetic reluctances of the magnetic elements on the servo valve torque motor, and offers modified and analytical expressions to electromagnetic torque constant and magnetic spring stiffness. These modified and analytical expressions could provide guidance more accurately for a linear control design approach and sensitivity analysis on electro-hydraulic servo valves than the previous expressions.

Characteristics Prediction Method of Electro-hydraulic Servo Valve Based on Rough Set and Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System

Synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve are key factors to determine eligibility of the hydraulic production. Testing all synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve after assembling leads to high repair rate and reject rate, so accurate prediction for the synthesis characteristics in the industrial production is particular important in decreasing the repair rate and the reject rate of the product. However, the research in forecasting synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve is rare. In this work, a hybrid prediction method was proposed based on rough set（RS） and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system（ANFIS） in order to predict synthesis characteristics of electro-hydraulic servo valve. Since the geometric factors affecting the synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve are from workers＇ experience, the inputs of the prediction method are uncertain. RS-based attributes reduction was used as the preprocessor, and then the exact geometric factors affecting the synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve were obtained. On the basis of the exact geometric factors, ANFIS was used to build the final prediction model. A typical electro-hydraulic servo valve production was used to demonstrate the proposed prediction method. The prediction results showed that the proposed prediction method was more applicable than the artificial neural networks（ANN） in predicting the synthesis characteristics of electro-hydraulic servo valve, and the proposed prediction method was a powerful tool to predict synthesis characteristics of the electro-hydraulic servo valve. Moreover, with the use of the advantages of RS and ANFIS, the highly effective forecasting framework in this study can also be applied to other problems involving synthesis characteristics forecasting.

Research on the jet characteristics of the deflector–jet mechanism of the servo valve

In view of the complicated structure of the deflector-jet mechanism,a mathematical model based on the turbulent jet flow theory in the deflector-jet amplifier is proposed.Considering the energy transformation and momentum variation,an equation of the flow velocity distribution at the key fluid region is established to describe the morphological changes of the fluid when it passes through the deflector and jets into the receiver.Moreover,the process is segmented into four stages.According to the research results,the oil enters the deflector and impinges with the side wall.Then one part of the oil＇s flow velocity decreases and a high pressure zone is formed by the oil accumulation,the other part of the oil reverses out of the deflector along the side wall.Prior to entering the receiver,the flow is a kind of plane impinging jet.Virtually,the working pressure of the receiver is generated by the impact force,while the high speed fluid flows out of the receiver and forms a violent vortex,which generates negative pressure and causes the oil to be gasified.Compared with the numerical simulation results,the turbulent jet model that can effectively describe the characteristics of the deflector-jet mechanism is accurate.In addition,the calculation results of the prestage pressure characteristic have been verified by experiments.

GIANT MAGNETOSTRICTIVE ACTUATOR IN SERVO VALVE AND MICRO PIPE ROBOT

Performance of giant magnetostrictive material (GMM) is introduced. Principleof work, basic structure and key techniques of giant magnetostrictive actuator (GMA) are analyzed.Its dynamic models of magneto-mechanical coupling are established. The structure and principle ofthe pneumatic servo valve and the micro pipe robot with new homemade GMM are presented. Theexperiment is carried out under typical working conditions. The experiment results show that the GMMpneumatic servo valve has wide pressure control characteristics, good linearity, and fast responsespeed. The movement principles of the GMM robot system are reliably feasible and its maximal movingspeed is about 8 mm/s. It is preferable to the driving frequency of the robot within 100 approx 300Hz.

2D SIMPLIFIED SERVO VALVE

A novel pilot stage valve called simplified 2D valve, which utilizes bothrotary and linear motions of a single spool, is presented. The rotary motion of the spoolincorporating hydraulic resistance bridge, formed by a damper groove and a crescent overlap opening,is utilized as pilot to actuate linear motion of the spool. A criterion for stability is derivedfrom the linear analysis of the valve. Special experiments are designed to acquire the mechanicalstiffness, the pilot leakage and the step response. It is shown that the sectional size of thespiral groove affects the dynamic response and the stiffness contradictorily and is also verysensitive to the pilot leakage. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a balance between the staticand dynamic characteristics in deciding the structural parameters. Nevertheless, it is possible tosustain the dynamic response at a fairly high level, while keeping the leakage of the pilot stage atan acceptable level.

Simulation investigation on fluid characteristics of jet pipe water hydraulic servo valve based on CFD

Simulation investigation on fluid characteristics of the water hydraulic jet pipe servo valve （WHJPSV） is conducted through a commercial computational fluid dynamics （CFD） software package FLUENT. In particular, the factors to fluid characteristics of WHJPSV are addressed, which include diameter combination of jet pipe and receiver pipe, jet pipe nozzle clearance, angle between two jet receiver pipes and deflection angle of the jet pipe. It is concluded from the results that： （i） Structural parameters have great influences on fluid characteristics of WHJPSV, when d1 = d2 = 0.3 mm, α= 45 , b = 0.5 mm, and the simulation exhibits better fluid characteristics; （ii） The magnitude of the recovery pressure and flow velocity increase almost linearly with the deflection angle of jet pipe. The research work in this paper is important for determining and optimizing the structural parameters of the jet pipe and jet receiver. The relevant conclusions could be extended to the study of other water hydraulic servo control components.

Study on driving magnetic field and performance of GMA for nozzle flapper servo valve

The structure and principle of the GMM actuator and the new nozzle flapper valve with the GMA were presented. Based on the axis-symmetric FEM model of the GMA driving magnetic field was computed. And the field distribution for different input currents and variant curves of magnetic flux density along the axis were determined by using FEM. Magnetic flux density of the GMM actuator was practically measured under different input currents. The experiment of output displacement and frequency response of the GMM actuator was carried out under typical working conditions. The experiment results show that the GMA for nozzle flapper servo valve has bigger output displacement and quick response speed. And theoretical basis was presented to further introduce the GMA nozzle flapper valve into two stage electro-hydraulic servooo valve.

High precise control method for a new type of Piezoelectric electro-hydraulic servo valve

A new type of piezoelectric electro-hydraulic servo valve system was proposed. And then multilayer piezoelectric actuator based on new piezoelectric ceramic material was used as the electricity-machine converter of the proposed piezoelectric electro-hydraulic servo valve. The proposed piezoelectric electro-hydraulic servo valve has ascendant performance compared with conventional ones. But the system is of high nonlinearity and uncertainty, it cannot achieve favorable control performance by conventional control method. To develop an efficient way to control piezoelectric electro-hydraulic servo valve system, a high-precise fuzzy control method with hysteresis nonlinear model in feedforward loop was proposed. The control method is separated into two parts: a feedforward loop with Preisach hysteresis nonlinear model and a feedback loop with high-precise fuzzy control. Experimental results show that the hysteresis loop and the maximum output hysteresis by the PID control method are 4.22% and 2.11 μm, respectively; the hysteresis loop and the maximum output hysteresis by the proposed control method respectively are 0.74% and 0.37 μm, respectively; the maximum tracking error by the PID control method for sine wave reference signal is about 5.02%, the maximum tracking error by the proposed control method for sine wave reference signal is about 0.85%.

Mathematical Model of Steady State Operation in Jet Pipe Electro-Hydraulic Servo Valve

Jet pipe electro-hydraulic servo valve is the heart of feedback control systems,and it is one of the mechatronic components used for precision flow control application.It consists of several precision and ddicate components.The performance of the jet pipe servo valve depends on many parameters.During the developmental stage,it is very difficult to ascertain the function parameters.The steady-state analysis of jet pipe electro-hydraulic servo valve has been made to simulate its fluid characteristics （flowin,flow-out,leakage flow,recovery or load pressure,etc.） by mathematical modeling.Theoretical model was conducted on various affecting parameters on the pressure,the main flow rate of fluid,or leakage flow through the receiver holes.The major parameters studied are jet pipe nozzle diameters,receiver hole diameters,angle between the two centre-lines of receiver hole,nozzle offset,and nozzle stand-of distance.In this paper the research is important to determine and optimize the structural parameters of jet pipe servo valve.Thus,equations of the pressure and flow characteristics are set up and the optimal structural parameters of jet pipe are established.

Numerical and experimental investigation of leakage behavior at null position of high-pressure electro-pneumatic servo valve

The high-pressure electro-pneumatic servo valve(HESV)is a core element of the high-pressure pneumatic servo system.The annular clearance and the rounded corner of the spool-sleeve can cause the leakage at null position,thereby affecting high-precision control and stability of the servo system.This paper investigates the effects of the clearance structure on leakage behavior at null position of the HESV.A numerical approach was employed to evaluate the effects,and then a mathematical model was established to obtain the variation law of leakage flow rate at null position.The results indicate that the leakage flow rate at null position varies linearly with supply pressure and rounded corner radius,and is nonlinear as a quadratic concave function with annular clearance.The leakage flow rate of the annular clearance and the rounded corner varies with the valve opening in an invariable−nonlinear−linear trend.A test rig system of leakage behavior at null position of the HESV was built to confirm the validity of the numerical model,which agrees well with the conducted experimental study.

Research on valve core’s clamping stagnation of double flapper-nozzle servo valve

Due to great changing of instantaneous temperature of hydraulic oil of double flapper-nozzle servo valve, thermal deformation between valve core and valve sleeve may result in catching phenomenon of valve core, and then the reliability of servo valve could be affected seriously. The work focuses on a particular model of double flapper-nozzle servo valve and establishes three dimension couple models of liquid-solid-thermal under extreme operating condition. The transmission route and dissipative mechanism of heat is revealed and thermal deformation behavior of valve core and valve sleeve is researched. A change law of the key fit clearance under the effect of thermal expansion and warp deformation is explored, the source of catching phenomenon of valve core is identified, and then preventive measure and improvement can be proposed. In order to verify the correctness of theoretical analysis, the moving smoothness of deformed valve core and reground valve core under the circumstance of high-temperature hydraulic oil on electrohydraulic servo valve static characteristics test table is compared and tested. The results show that as oil temperature rises, relative deformations between valve core and valve sleeve in different direction at a same cross-section are not equal, and then the key fit clearance is less than the initial value. Relative deformations in the same direction at different axial position are not equal, the deformations of middle and two ends are maximum and minimum values respectively, and then warp deformation of valve core occurs. When oil temperature is higher, the relative deformations between valve core and valve sleeve is larger, the moving smoothness of valve core gets worse, and the catching phenomenon of valve core occurs. Axial deformation of valve sleeve and valve core at different axial position is different, and the opening coefficient and stability of servo valve could be affected, especially the operation circumstance of small opening. The study can provide some guidance for designing double nozzle flapper servo valves.

Application of Modelica/MWorks on modeling,simulation and optimization for electro-hydraulic servo valve system

Electro-hydraulic servo valve is a typical complicated multi-domain system constituted by mechanical, electric, hydraulic and magnetic components, which is widely used in electro-hydraulic servo systems such as construction machinery, heavy equipment, weapon and so forth. The traditional method of modeling and simulation of servo valve is based on block diagram or signal flow, which cannot describe the servo valve system from components level nor be used in modeling and simulation of overall servo systems. In the procedure of traditional method, computational causality must be involved in modeling of servo valve, which is inconvenient to execute modification on components or parameters. Modelica is an object-oriented modeling language which is suited for large, complex, heterogeneous and multi-domain systems. The key features of Modelica are multi-domain, object-oriented and non-causal, which are suitable for modeling of servo valve and make the model readable, reusable, and easy to modify. The simulation results show similar curves with traditional method. This new servo valve modeling and simulation method can provide the engineers a more efficient way to design and optimize a servo valve and an overall servo system.

Dynamic Characteristics of the Jet Force on the Flapper of the Pilot Stage in a Flapper Nozzle Servo Valve Under the Flow-Solid Interaction

Nowadays,more and more attention has been paid to improve the performance of the nozzle flapper servo valve.As a core part of nozzle flapper servo valve,the armature assembly is affected by electromagnetic force,jet force and feedback force at the same time.Due to the complex structure of the pilot stage flow field and the high jet pressure,the prediction of the jet force has always been difficult in modeling the transient motion of the servo valve.Whereupon,a numerical simulation method based on the flow-solid interaction(FSI)is applied to observe the variation of the jet force when the flapper is moving.Different parameters are employed to seek a suitable numerical simulation model which can balance the accuracy and computational cost.By comparing with the experiment results,the effectiveness of numerical simulation method in predicting the variation of the jet force and cavitation is verified.By this numerical simulation model,the distribution of flow field and the force on the flapper predicted by the moving and fixed flapper are compared.The results show that more dynamic details are achieved by the transient simulation.By analyzing the numerical simulation results of different inlet pressures and flapper vibration frequencies,the relationship between the movement of the flapper,the flow field distribution,the jet force and the inlet pressure is established,which provides a theoretical basis for the subsequent modeling of the armature assembly.

Refined modeling and experimental verification of a torque motor for an electro-hydraulic servo valve

The Permanent Magnet Torque Motor(PMTM)is the key electro-mechanical conversion device in an Electro-Hydraulic Servo Valve(EHSV).In this work,a refined model of a PMTM is developed,considering the non-working air-gaps between the upper or lower yoke and the armature,the fringing effect at the limiting holes,and the nonlinear permeability of soft magnetic material.Based on the refined model,the influences of various factors on the calculation accuracy of the magnetic flux at the pole surfaces of the armature and the output torque are investigated.For verifying the validity of the refined model,a Finite Element Analysis(FEA)of the PMTM is conducted,and a test platform is constructed.Compared with existing models,the refined model can better reveal the intrinsic mechanism of the PMTM,and its calculations are more consistent with the FEA results.The experimental results of the armature deflection displacement show that the refined model can accurately describe the output characteristics of the PMTM.

A seventh-order model for dynamic response of an electro-hydraulic servo valve

In this paper, taking two degrees of freedom on the armature–flapper assembly into account, a seventh-order model is deduced and proposed for the dynamic response of a two-stage electro-hydraulic servo valve from nonlinear equations. These deductions are based on fundamental laws of electromagnetism, fluid, and general mechanics. The coefficients of the proposed seventhorder model are derived in terms of servo valve physical parameters and fluid properties explicitly.For validating the results of the proposed model, an AMESim simulation model based on physical laws and the existing low-order models validated by other researchers through experiments are used to compare with the seventh-order model. The results show that the seventh-order model can reflect the physical behavior of the servo valve more explicitly than the existing low-order models and it could provide guidance more easily for a linear control design approach and sensitivity analysis than the AMESim simulation model.

Mathematical modeling of an armature assembly in pilot stage of a hydraulic servo valve based on distributed parameters

The dynamic performance of a nozzle-flapper servo valve can be affected by several factors such as the disturbance of the input signal,the motion of the armature assembly and the oscillation of the jet force.As the part of vibrating at high frequency,the armature assembly plays a vital role during the operation of the servo valve.In order to accurately predict the transient response of the armature assembly during the vibration,a mathematical model of armature assembly is established based on the distributed parameters method(DPM)and Hamilton principle.The new mathematical model is composed of three main parts,the modal eigenfunction,modal mechanical response expressions of the spring tube and the motion equation of the other armature assembly.After programing,the purpose of using the DPM to predict the dynamic response of different positions located on the armature assembly is achieved.For verifying the validity of the mathematical model,the finite element method(FEM)and classic model(CM)of armature assembly are applicated by commercial software under the same condition.The comparison results prove that the DPM can effectively predict the axial and tangential deflection of the armature assembly different positions which the CM can’t duing to its over-simplification.A certain error is generated when predicting the axial deformation at different heights by DPM,which is caused by an approximate method to simulate the torsion of the spring tube.The comparison results of the spring tube deflection at different vibration frequencies shows that the adaptability of DPM is significantly higher than the classic model,which verify the model is more adaptable for predicting the dynamic response of the armature assembly.

Mechanism analysis and evaluation of thermal effects on the operating point drift of servo valves

Operating point drift over large temperature spans can significantly degrade the performance of servo valves.The direction and magnitude of the deviation of the operating point are uncertain.To analyze and evaluate the mechanism of this complex system with a multi-level structure and multi-variables,it is necessary to construct a theoretical model with a clear physical concept to describe it.However,since the physical processes contain complex variations of structural parameters and flow properties,there is a problem of simplifying approximations in deriving analytical mathematical relations.The advantages of multi-physics field numerical analysis can compensate for this shortcoming of analytical formulations.Based on this,we constructed a whole-valve transfer function model to realize the mechanism analysis and evaluate the operating point drift when a thermal effect acts on a servo valve.The results show that the asymmetric fit relationship between the armature-nozzle assemblies is an important reason for the drift of the operating point caused by the thermal effect.Differences in structural parameters and fluid medium characteristics at different temperatures lead to nonlinear changes in the operating point.When the deviation angle reaches±1°,an increase in temperature will cause the absolute value of the tangent slope of the displacement deviation of the spool to decrease from 1.44×10^(−5) m/℃to 1.25×10^(−6) m/℃.The influence of the deviation angle is reflected in the change in the absolute value of the tangent slope of the pressure deviation from 1.14×10^(3) Pa/℃to 110 Pa/℃.

Static Characteristics of the New Type Nozzle Flapper Amplifier for Double Nozzle Flapper Electro-Hydraulic Servo Valve

A new type nozzle flapper amplifier for double nozzle flapper electro-hydraulic servo valve is proposed in the paper.The electro-mechanical converter of new type nozzle flapper amplifier is designed by using the piezoelectric bimorph and beryllium-bronze materials.The structure and working principle of the new type nozzle flapper amplifier are introduced.Pressure characteristic and flowrate characteristic are analyzed by experimental method.The research results show that pressure characteristic has large amplification factor and output pressure;flowrate characteristic has large linear range and output flowrate.

Three-dimensional flow field mathematical model inside the pilot stage of the deflector jet servo valve

A new flow field mathematical model is proposed to describe accurately the flow field structure and calculate the static characteristics of the pilot stage in a deflector jet servo valve(DJSV). The flow field is divided into five regions, a 3D turbulent jet is adopted to describe the free jet region, and a velocity distribution expression of the jet is proposed. The jet entrainment model is put forward in the pressure recovery region to describe the coupling relationship between the pressure in the receiving chamber and the jet flow. The static characteristics, including pressure-flow characteristics, pressure characteristics,and flow characteristics of the pilot stage are obtained. The flow field structure and the static characteristics are verified by finite element analysis(FEA) and experiment, respectively, and the mathematical model results are in good agreement with the experimental and simulation results.